■L<^? Hfs 




'fe»^ No. I. -6. 



Lexington Town 

Meetings from 

1765 to 1775. 



From Hudson's History of Lexington, embodying the 
Resolutions and Instructions of the Town Meetings. 



The bloody contest with the French and Indians was over. 
Canada was concjuered, and the domain of North America was 
secured to England. The stern Puritans, who had served 
so heroically — and we may add prayerfully — in the cause, and 
who had given success to the arms of Great Britain, were 
filled with rejoicing. They had proved their devotion to the 
crown, and had contributed largely to the extension of His Maj- 
esty's possessions in North America, and, by so doing, had se- 
cured to themselves the great blessing of enjoying undisturbed 
the freedom of Congregational worship. They also flattered 
themselves that the king they had served, the country whose in- 
terest they had promoted, and the ministry whose administra- 
tion they had contributed to make illustrious would gratefully 
remember the services rendered, and treat their faithful colo- 
nists, not only with justice, but with generosity. 

In this general expectation the good people of Lexington par- 
ticipated. They had experienced the dangers, encountered the 
hardships, and felt the exhaustion of the war; and they needed 
repose. Lexington, according to her population, had furnished 
a large number of men. Her citizens who had rendered dis- 
tinguished service to their king and country had returned to 
their homes and families, to engage in their industrial pursuits, 
to render their families more comfortable, and to retrieve their 

109 



U'-l^^'' 



ruined fortunes, and by their manly exertion and strict frugality 
to bear their share of the taxes incident to the war, and at the 
same time contribute to the maintenance of civ^il and reUgious 
institutions in their native town. Industry revived in the place, 
and the people were exerting themselves to improve their high- 
ways, and increase the facihties for the education of their chil- 
dren, and thus promote the prosperity of the town. But these 
dreams of peace and prosperity were disturbed by intimations 
that the ministry they had served with so much fidelity, and in 
whose cause they had cheerfully made such sacrifices, instead 
of requiting these favors with kindness, were meditating a sys- 
tem of unjust exaction and servitude, greater than anything to 
which the colonists had ever before been subjected. 

In fact, while the colonists were freely pouring out their blood 
and treasure in support of the crown and His Majesty's posses- 
sions in x^merica, the ministry were meditating a plan by which 
the colonists should not only support their own government, but 
contribute to the maintenance of that power which had oppressed 
them. This was to be done by enlarging the prerogatives of 
the home government at the expense of the colonial charters. 
These contemplated encroachments were looked upon by the 
people of Massachusetts with peculiar jealousy, and by none 
more than by the people of Lexington. . . . Their proximity to 
the town of Boston, against which British tyranny seemed, from 
the first, to be mainly directed, made them alive to everything 
which tended to impair the prosperity of their principal market. . . . 
The men who had fought as faithful English subjects in defence 
of English institutions, and also to acquire a larger domain for 
the crown, felt that they were entitled to the rights of English 
subjects. They had paid too dearly for their homes and firesides 
to be willing to have them invaded l^}- the nation they had served. 
The military experience they had had, and the knowledge of arms 
they had acquired, gave them confidence in their own strength, 
so that they were not to be intimidated by any threat of enforcing 
oppressive laws at the point of the bayonet. 

There was another general cause in operation in the colonies 
to make the people jealous of their rights, and awake to the 
spirit of liberty. The clergy in those days exercised a control- 
ling influence in their respective parishes. In most of the country 
towns the minister was the only educated man in the place, and 
consequently was consulted on all great questions more frequently 
than any other individual. And, as the great theme of that day 



was that of religious freedom, the clergy were almost uniformly 
found on the side of liberty. They knew that religious and civil 
rights were so nearly allied, that they must stand or fall together. 
They had taught the necessity of resisting oppression during the 
French war. The voice of the clergy at that period was on the 
side of defending our rights at every hazard. "An injured and 
oppressed people, whose destruction and overthrow is aimed 
at by unreasonable men, ought, surely, to stand upon their de- 
fence, and not tamely submit to their incursions and violence."* 
Such was the feeling of that day. It pervaded the whole commu- 
nity in a greater or less degree. But in no town was this doc- 
trine inculcated with more force or fidelity than in Lexington. 
Their clergyman, the Rev. Jonas Clarke, was a man of decided 
ability, who was capable of comprehending the whole subject 
in all its bearings, of showing the intimate connection between 
civil and rehgious liberty, and of enforcing the high and impor- 
tant duty of fideHty to God, by maintaining the liberties of the 
people. He not only sympathized with his brethren generally 
on these subjects, and acted in harmony with them in inculcating 
the duty of patriotism, but in everything pertaining to human 
rights, and the sacred obUgation to maintain them, he was one 
who took the lead. . . . 

In March, 1765, the first of a series of measures for taxing the 
colonies passed the British Parliament, and soon after received 
the sanction of the crown. This roused the just indignation of 
the American people. 

On the 2 1 St of October, 1765, a town meeting was held in Lex- 
ington, to see what Instructions the town would give in relation 
to the Stamp Act. The subject was referred to the selectmen, 
consisting of James Stone, Thaddeus Bowman, Robert Harring- 
ton, Benjamin Brown, and Samuel Stone, Jr., for their consid- 
eration, who, being duly prepared, submitted at once a draft of 
Instructions. It is but justice to the memory of Mr. Clarke to 
say that this paper, as well as several other able papers recorded 
in our town book, were from his pen. The committee who re- 
ported them, though undoubtedly sensible and patriotic men, 
laid no claim to that finished scholarship which characterizes 
this and the other papers to which reference is made. There 
is internal evidence of their authorship, and it has ever been con- 
ceded that they were written by Mr. Clarke; and, as further 
evidence of the fact, I have now before me the original draft of 

* Fast Sermon of Mr. Maccarty, of Worcester, 1759. 



one of these papers in Mr. Clarke's own handwriting. The 
instructions are so fraught with wisdom, so patriotic in their 
doctrines, and reflect so fully the sentiments of the people of the 
town who adopted them unanimously, that I will give them in 
full. 

To William Reed, Esq., the present Representative of Lexington: 

Sir, — We have looked upon men as beings naturally free. And it 
is a truth which the history of ages and the common experience of 
mankind have fully confirmed that a people can never be divested 
of these invaluable rights and liberties, which are necessary to the hap- 
piness of individuals, to the well-being of communities, or to a well- 
regulated state, but by their own negligence, imprudence, timidity, 
or rashness. They are seldom lost but when foolishly forfeited or 
tamely resigned. 

And therefore, when we consider the invaluable rights and liberties 
we now possess, the firmness and resolution of our fathers for the 
support and preservation of them for us, and how much we owe to 
ourselves and to posterity, we cannot but look upon it as an unpardon- 
able neglect any longer to delay expressing how deeply we are con- 
cerned in some measures adopted by the late ministry, and how much 
we fear from some acts lately passed in the British Parliament, which 
appear to us not only distressing to the trade and commerce of this 
Province, but subversive of several of our most invaluable internal 
rights, as well as privileges, and from which we apprehend the most 
fatal consequences. 

What of all most alarms us is an Act commonly called the Stamp 
Act, the full execution of which we apprehend would divest us of our 
most inestimable charter rights and privileges, rob us of our character 
as free and natural subjects, and of almost everything we ought, as 
a people, to hold dear. 

Admitting there was no dispute as to the right of Parliament to im- 
pose such an Act upon us, yet we cannot forbear complaining of it 
in itself considered, as unequal and unjust, and a yoke too heavy for 
us to bear, and that not only as it falls heaviest upon the poor, the 
widow, and the fatherless and the orphan, not only as it will embarrass 
the trade and business of this infant country, and so prevent remit- 
tances to England, but more especially as the duties and penalties 
imposed by it are numerous, and so high that it will quickly drain the 
country of the little cash remaining in it, strip multitudes of their prop- 
erty, and reduce them to poverty, and in a short time render it utterly 
impossible for the people to subsist under it; and what will be the con- 
sequences of this to our friends in Great Britain, as well as to ourselves, 
is easily seen.* 

* By this .\ct. a ream of bail bonds, stamped, cost £ioo\ a ream of common printed ones 
before had been sold for £15. A ream of stamped policies of insurance cost ;^i9o; a ream 
of common ones without stamps, i^2o. Other papers were ta.\ed in the same proportion. 
112 



5 

But we humbly conceive this Act to be directly repugnant to those 
rights and privileges granted us in our charter, which we always hold 
sacred, as confirmed to us by the royal word and seal, and as frequently 
recognized by our Sovereign and the Parliament of Great Britain, 
wherein it is expressly granted to us and to our children, that we shall 
have and enjoy all liberties and immunities of free and natural sub- 
jects, within any of his ISIajesty's Dominions, to all intents, construc- 
tions, and purposes, as if we were every one of us bom in his Majesty's 
realm of England; and, further, that the full power and authority 
to impose and le\y proportionable and reasonable taxes, upon the 
estates and persons of all the inhabitants within the Province, for the 
support and defence of His Majesty's Government, are granted to the 
General Court or Assembly thereof. 

But by this Act a tax, yea, a heav^ tax, is imposed, not only without 
and beside the authority of said General Court, in which this power, 
which has never been forfeited nor given up, is said to be fully and 
exclusively lodged, but also in direct opposition to an essential right 
or privilege of free and natural subjects of Great Britain, who look 
upon it as their darling and constitutional right never to be taxed but 
by their own consent, in person or by their Representatives. 

It is vain to pretend (as has been pretended) that we are virtually 
or in any just sense, represented in Parliament, when it is well known 
that, so far from this, our humble petitions and decent remonstrances, 
prepared and sent home by the representative body of this people, 
were not admitted a hearing in ParHament, even at the time when those 
measures and acts from which we apprehend so much, were depending 
in the Hon. House of Commons, — a hardship which greatly adds to 
the grievance, and seems to intimate that we have but too little to hope 
in consequence of the most humble and dutiful steps. 

However, this is not all. By this Act we are most deeply affected, 
as hereby we are debarred of being tried by juries in case of any breach 
or supposed breach of it, — a right which, until now, we have held in 
common with our brethren in England; a right which under Provi- 
dence has been the great barrier of justice, the support of liberty and 
property in Great Britain and America; a right which is the glory of 
the British government. 

The Great Charter of England, commonly called Magna Charter, 
happily provided for all free and natural subjects of the realm of Eng- 
land, that no amercement shall be assessed but by the oath of honest 
and lawful men of the vicinage, and that no freeman shall be taken 
or imprisoned or disseised of his freehold or liberties, or free customs, 
nor passed upon, nor condemned, but by the lawful judgment of his 
peers, or by the law of the land; but instead of this most imjxjrtant 
right, such is the extension of power given by this Act to Courts of 
Admirahy, that all offences against it may be heard and tried and 
determined in said courts, to the entire subversion of this imix)rtant 
right, confirmed to us by the Great Charter and our own. 

"3 



This we apprehend will open a door to numberless evils which time 
only can discover. At least it will oftentimes oblige us to risk our 
fortunes, our liberties, and characters, upon the judgment of one, and 
perhaps a stranger, or perhaps that which is worse. This will sub- 
ject us entirely to the mercy of avaricious informers, who may at pleas- 
ure summon us from one part of the Province to the other upon sus- 
picion of the least offence, and thus bring upon innocent persons a 
sort of necessity of pleading guilty by paying the penalty, to avoid a 
greater expense. And this being the state of things, what will then 
be necessary but a weak or wicked person for a judge; and from nat- 
ural and free-born subjects we shall quickly become the most abject 
slaves, wholly cut off from our last resource, — hope of redress! 

These, sir, being the real sentiments of us, the freeholders and other 
inhabitants of the town, of this Act, as in its nature and effects con- 
sidered, you cannot be surprised to find us greatly alarmed and deeply 
affected. And, therefore, at the same time that we are firmly resolved 
in all possible ways to express our filial duty and loyalty to our Sov- 
ereign, and a due veneration to both Houses of Parliament, we do also, 
as concerned for ourselves, our posterity and country, entreat and en- 
join it upon you, that so far from encouraging, aiding, or assenting 
in the execution of this Act, you do rather endeavor, as far as consist- 
ent with allegiance and duty to our rightful Sovereign, to promote 
such measures as, on the contrar)', may tend to preserve us in the en- 
joyment of the invaluable rights and liberties we at present possess, 
at least till we hear the result of the measures already taken for general 
redress. 

In the mean time we earnestly recommend to you the most calm, 
decent, and dispassionate measures for our open, explicit, and reso- 
lute assertion and vindication of our charter rights and liberties, and 
that the same be so entered upon record that the world may see, and 
future generations know, that the present both knew and valued the 
rights they enjoyed, and did not tamely resign them for chains and 
slavery. We shall only add that the best economy of the public money 
is at all times necessar}% and never more so than at present, when public 
debts are heavy, and the people's burdens great and likely to increase. 

We take it for granted, therefore, that you will carefully avoid all 
unaccustomed and unconstitutional grants, which will not only add 
to the present burden, but make such precedents as will be attended 
with consequences which may prove greatly to the disadvantage of 
the public. 

Instructions such as these, read in open town meeting, and 
discussed and adopted by a unanimous vote of the inhabitants, 
would do much towards creating a just appreciation of their 
rights as subjects, and of the duties they owed, not only to their 
Sovereign, but to themselves. A people thus instructed and 
114 



trained in the school of stern religious principles would be found 
ready for almost any emergency. Consequently, when the town 
of Boston, to manifest their opposition to the oppressive acts of 
the ministry, resolved that they would not import or use certain 
articles on which these duties were laid, the inhabitants of Lex- 
ington, at a meeting held Dec. 28, 1767, ''Voted unanimously, 
To concur with the town of Boston respecting importing and using 
foreign commodities, as mentioned in their votes, passed at their 
meeting on the twenty-eighth day of October, 1767." 

Nothing of moment occurred in the municipal affairs of the 
town during the period under review. Roads were repaired, 
schools were supported, the poor were provided for, and the para- 
mount subject, the maintenance of pubHc worship, received its 
due share of attention. But the subject which pressed upon them 
most heavily during this period was the oppression of the mother 
country. Not, however, that the measures of the British min- 
istry did bear directly and immediately upon them with any dis- 
tressing hardship at that time. But our patriotic forefathers 
looked at the principle involved in the measures, and they knew 
full well that a trifling ta.x upon stamped paper or upon tea would 
serve as an entering wedge to a system of taxation which must 
reduce the colonies to a state of absolute dependence, if not com- 
plete vassalage; and patriotism prompted, nay, religion required, 
that they should oppose the first attempt to trample upon their 
rights. . . . 

On the twenty-first day of September, 1768, the inhabitants 
of Lexington assembled in town meeting legally warned, "To 
take into their serious consideration the distressed state of the 
Province at the present day, and to pass any vote relative thereto." 
After due consideration they made choice of Isaac Bowman, 
Esq., William Reed, Esq., and Dea. James Stone "to prepare 
reasons for our present conduct," who subsequently reported the 
following Declarations and Resolves: — 

Whereas it is the principle in civil society, founded in nature and 
reason, that no law of the society can be binding on any individual 
without his consent, given by himself in person, or by his Rej)rcsenta- 
tive of his own free election; and whereas, in and by an Act of the 
British Parliament, passed in the first year of the reign of King Will- 
iam and Queen Mar)' of glorious and blessed memory, entitled an Act 
declaring the rights and liberties of the subjects, and settling the suc- 
cession of the crown, — the Preamble of which .\ct is in these words, 
namely, — 

"5 



8 

"Whereas the late King James the Second, by the assistance of 
diverse evil Councillors, Judges, and Ministers employed by him, did 
endeavor to subvert and extirpate the Protestant religion, and the laws 
and liberties of the kingdom, it is expressly, among other things, de- 
clared that the levying of money for the use of the crow^n by pretence 
of prerogative, without grant of Parliament for a longer time, or in 
other manner than the same is granted, is illegal." 

And whereas, in the third year of the same King William and Queen 
Mary, their Majesties were graciously pleased, by their Royal Charter, 
to give and grant to the inhabitants of this his Majesty's Province 
all the territory therein described, to be holden in free and common 
soccage, and also to ordain and grant to the said inhabitants certain 
rights, liberties, and privileges therein expressly mentioned, among 
which it is granted, established, and ordained that all and every the 
subjects of them, their heirs and successors, which shall go to inhabit 
within said Province and territory, and every of their children which 
shall happen to be born there, and on the seas in going thither or re- 
turning from thence, shall have and enjoy all the liberties and immu- 
nities of free and natural subjects, within any of the dominions of them, 
their heirs and successors, to all intents, purposes, and constructions 
whatever, as if they and every of them were bom within the realm of 
England. 

And whereas, by the aforesaid Act of Parliament, made in the first 
year of the said King William and Queen Mary, all and singular, the 
premises contained therein, are claimed, demanded, and insisted on 
as '^he undoubted rights and liberties bom within the realm; And 
whereas the freeholders and other inhabitants of this town in said 
charter mentioned do hold all the rights and liberties therein con- 
tained to be sacred and inviolable, at the same time publicly and 
solemnly acknowledging their firm and unshaken allegiance to their 
alone rightful Sovereign King George the Third, the lawful successor 
of the said King William and Queen Mary to the British throne: — 

Therefore, Resolved, That the freeholders and other inhabitants of 
the town of Lexington will, at the utmost peril of their lives and fort- 
unes, take all legal and constitutional measures to defend and main- 
tain the person, family, crown, and dignity of our said Sovereign Lord, 
George the Third, and all and singular the rights, liberties, privileges, 
and immunities granted in said royal charter, as well as those which 
are declared to be belonging to us as British subjects, by birthright, 
as all others therein specially mentioned. 

And whereas, by the said Royal Charter, it is specially granted to the 
Great and General Court or Assembly therein constituted to impose 
and levy proportionable and reasonable assessments, rates, and taxes 
upon the estates and persons of all and every the proprietors and in- 
habitants of the said Province or territory, for the service of the king 
in the necessary defence and support of his government of the Province, 
and the protection and preservation of his subjects therein: 
ii6 



Therefore, Voted, As the opinion of this town, that levying money 
within this Province for the use and service of the crown in any other 
manner than the same is granted by the Great and General Court or 
Assembly of this Province is in violation of the said Royal Charter; 
and the same is in violation of the undoubted, natural rights of sub- 
jects, declared in the aforesaid Act of Parliament, freely to give and 
grant their own money for the ser\ace of the crown, with their own 
consent in person, or by Representatives of their own free election. 

And whereas, in the aforesaid Act of Parliament, it is declared that 
the raising and keeping a standing army within the kingdom in time 
of peace, unless it be with the consent of Parliament, is against law, 
it is the opinion of this town that the said Declaration is founded in 
the indefeasible rights of the subjects to be consulted, and to give 
their free consent in person or by Representative, of their own free 
election, to the raising and keeping a standing army among them. 
And the inhabitants of this town, being free subjects, have the same 
rights derived from nature, and confirmed by the British Constitution, 
as well as by the Royal Charter; and, therefore, the raising or keeping 
a standing army without their consent in person or by representatives 
of their own free election would be an infringement of their natural, 
constitutional, and charter rights. And the employment of such an 
army for the enforcing of laws made without the consent of the people 
in person or by their representatives would be a grievance. 

The foregoing Report being several times distinctly read and 
considered by the town, the question was put whether the same 
shall be accepted and recorded, and passed unanimously in the 
affirmative. 

The following vote was also unanimously passed: — 

Whereas, by an Act of Parliament of the first of King William and 
Queen Mary, it is declared, that for the redress of all grievances and 
for amending, strengthening, and preserving the laws. Parliament 
ought to be held frequently; and inasmuch, as it is the opinion of this 
town that the people of this Province labor under many grievances, 
which, unless speedily redressed, threaten the total destruction of our 
invaluable, natural, constitutional, and charter rights; and, further- 
more, as his E.xcellency the Governor, at the request of the town of 
Boston, has declared himself unable to call a General Court, which 
is the Assembly of the States of this Province for the redress of griev- 
ances, — 

Voted, That this town will now make choice of some suitable person 
to join with such as are or may be appointed and sent from the several 
other towns in this Province, to consult and advise what may be best 
for the public good at this critical juncture. 

Then made choice of William Reed, Esq. 

117 



lO 

Also Voted, To keep a day of prayer on the occasion, and left it to 
the Rev. Mr. Clarke to appoint the time. 

These sentiments published in open town meeting, and sancti- 
fied by a day of fasting and prayer, would, of course, govern 
the conduct of a sincere and conscientious people. No wonder 
therefore, we find them, in 1769, ready to make what at the pres- 
ent day would in some families be considered a great sacrifice, 
by voting "not to use any tea or snuff, nor keep them, nor suffer 
them to be used in our famihes, till the duties are taken off." 

In 1772 a measure was on foot to make the Supreme Judges 
independent of the people, by granting them a salary directly 
by ParHament, thus taking from the people the only hold they 
had upon those officers, — that of withholding supplies. This 
measure was no sooner talked of than the alarm was given. 

At a meeting of the inhabitants of Lexington, held Dec. 31, 1772, 
the following resolves were passed: — 

1. That it is the natural right and indisputable duty of every man, 
and consequently of ever}- society or body of men, to consult theif 
own safety, and to take measures for the preservation of their own 
liberty and property, without which life itself can scarcely be deemed 
worth possessing. 

2. That the security of life, liberty, and property to a people is, and 
ought always to be considered, as the great end of all government, 
and is acknowledged to be the professed end of the happy constitution 
of the British Government in particular. 

3. That when through imperfections, necessarily attendant upon 
the wisest systems of which fallible men are capable, or through the 
designs of wicked or crafty men in places of power and trust, any laws 
or acts of government are found to be obnoxious or oppressive to the 
subject, it is wisely provided and established by Magna Charta, the 
Petition of Rights, and other statutes of England, that not only coun- 
ties, cities, and corporations, but also towns and individuals, may 
consult and adopt measures for redress by petition, remonstrance, 
or other ways, as occasion and the emergency of affairs may require. 

4. That the inhabitants of this town and Province by the Royal 
Charter (a sacred compact between them and the crown) being vested 
with all the rights and privileges of EngHshmen, and British subjects 
have the indisputable right, both as a people and as individuals, to 
judge for themselves when laws or measures of government are ob- 
noxious or oppressive, and to consult upon, and adopt the best meas- 
ures in their power for redress when oppressed. 

5. And, therefore, That as the inhabitants of this town look upon 
themselves, in common with their brethren and fellow-subjects through 
the Province, to be greatly injured and oppressed in various instances 
118 



II 

by measures of Government lately adopted, especially by the proposed 
measure of making the judges dependent upon the crown alone for 
their support, they cannot but judge it their inalienable right and a 
duty they owe to themselves and posterity, as a town as well as individ- 
uals, to take these matters into serious consideration, freely to express 
their sentiments concerning them, and consult measures for redress. 

Then voted that a committee of seven be chosen to report to the town 
at an adjournment of this meeting, a draft of Instructions for their 
Representative, also of such further Votes and Resolves, as they may 
think best to recommend to the town. — Then made choice of William 
Reed, Esq., Isaac Bowman, Esq., Capt. Thaddeus Bowman, Dea. 
Benjamin Brown, Mr. Samuel Bridge, Dea. Joseph Loring, and Mr. 
Joseph Simonds. 

At an adjourned meeting held Jan. 5, 1772, this committee 
submitted the following document, fraught with the wisdom and 
patriotism of their pious and devoted pastor, which was unani- 
mously adopted: — 

To Mr. Jonas Stone, Representative of the Town 0} Lexington: 

Sir, — It is not to call in question your capacity, disposition, or fidel- 
ity, of which we have given the fullest evidence in the choice we have 
made of you to represent us in the General Court of this Province, but 
in exercising our right of instructing our Representatives, to open our 
minds freely to you upon matters which appear to us interesting to 
ourselves, to the Province, and to posterity, and to strengthen and 
confirm you in measures which, we trust, your owm judgment would 
have suggested, as necessary and important to our common safety and 
prosperity, though we had been silent. 

Our worthy ancestors, after many struggles with their enemies in 
the face of every danger and at the expense of much treasure and blood, 
secured to themselves and transmitted to us their posterity a fair and 
rich inheritance, not only of a pleasant and fertile land, but also of in- 
valuable rights and privileges, both as men and Christians, as stated 
in the Royal Charter of the Province, and secured to us by the faith 
of the British Crown and Kingdom. As we hold due allegiance to 
our rightful Sovereign, King George III., and are ready with our Uvea 
and fortunes to support his just and constitutional government, so we 
look upon ourselves as bound by the most sacred ties, to the utmost 
of our power, to maintain and defend ourselves in our charter rights 
and privileges, and, as a sacred trust committed to us, to transmit them 
inviolate to succeeding generations. 

It is the general voice, at least of the more thinking and judicious 
among us, that our charter rights and liberties are in danger, arc in- 
fringed, and upon the most careful, mature, and serious considera- 
tion of them, as stated in our Charter, and comparing them with Acts 
of the British Parliament, and measures adopted by the British Court, 

119 



12 

Ministry, and Government, relating to this and other American Colo- 
nies, some of which have been carried into execution among us, v^^e are 
clearly of opinion that they have been for some time past, and are at 
present, greatly infringed and violated hereby in various instances, 
and these measures have been gone into from time to time by the Hon- 
orable Council and House of Representatives of the Province for re- 
lief and redress; yet, so far from being successful, our grievances seem 
to increase and be more, and more intolerable every day. 

The unhappy and distressing effects of the measures referred to are 
too many to admit, and too well known and felt to require a particular 
mention. But we cannot forbear observing the glowing contrast 
which, in some instances, is to be seen, between our Charter and the 
Resolves add Acts of the British Parliament, and measures of admin- 
istration, adopted by the British Court, respecting the people of this, 
as well as other Colonies. 

The Charter grants to our General Court full power and authority 
from time to time to make, ordain, and establish all manner of reason- 
able laws, &c., and that such laws, &c., not being disallowed by the 
King within three years, shall continue in full force until the expiration 
thereof, or until repealed by the same authority. But the British Par- 
liament have resolved that they have a right to make laws, binding upon 
the Colonies in all cases whatsoever, so that, whenever they please to 
carry this resolve into execution, they may by another resolve, passed 
into an Act, by one powerful stroke vacate our Charter, and in a mo- 
ment dash all our laws out of existence or bury them together in one 
common ruin. By the Charter the right of ta.xing the people is lodged 
in the General Court of the Province, and we think e.xclusively. But 
by the late revenue Acts, which have been, with so many ensigns of 
power and terror, in open violations of the laws and liberties of this 
people, put into execution by the Commissioners of the Customs, this 
right is clearly infringed, and the power put into and exercised by other 
hands. 

By the Charter we are vested with all the rights and liberties of 
British subjects, one of which v/e know is in Magna Charta declared 
to be that of trial by jur)', and that no freeman shall be disseised of his 
freehold, liberties, &c., but by the lawful judgment of his peers, &c. 
But such is the provision made in the revenue Act, and such the exer- 
cise of the power of courts of admiralty, that men may be disseised of 
their liberty, and carried from one part of the country to the other, 
and be tried and sentenced by one judge, for any, even the smallest 
breach of this Act, whether real or supposed. Though the Charter 
provides for the erecting of judicatories for the hearing and trying 
all manner of offences, as well criminal and capital as civil, yet, if 
we are rightly informed, a late Act of Parliament provides, and di- 
rects in some cases, that persons may be seized and carried to Eng- 
land for trial, and that for life. Should this be the truth, where is the 
right of freemen, — where the boasted liberty of English subjects? 



13 

The Charter represents the Governor of this Province as Captain 
General, and as having full power and authority in all military and 
warhke affairs, and of himself to appoint all military officers, to erect 
forts and commit them to the custody of such person or persons as 
to him shall seem meet. But can it be said that this is the truth in 
fact, when the Governor himself declares that he has no authority 
over those who have custody of the most important fortress, and where 
garrisons are changed and officers appointed, not only not by the 
Governor, but without his knowledge or consent. Whether this is 
the state of Castle William, the principal fortress of this Province, 
appears to us to be a question not unworthy the serious attention 
and most critical inquiry of the Great and General Court. 

The Charter not only vests the General Court with the right of im- 
posing taxes, but also points out the ends for which taxes are to be 
raised, one of which is the supjxjrt of the government, justly supposing 
that necessary connection between the governing and governed, and 
that mutual dependence which preserves a due balance between them, 
which in all well-regulated States has been found to have the happi- 
est tendency to promote good government on the one hand and cheer- 
ful obedience on the other. But not enough that the right of taxation 
is violated, but the right of determining the merit and services of those 
that are employed in government must be yielded too. Thus, with 
respect to the first officers among us, the only remaining interest whereby 
persons in the service of the public were induced to be faithful in their 
tmst to the people is dissolved; and, being entirely dependent upon 
the crown for both place and support, it becomes their interest, at least 
in many cases, to be unfaithful and partial in their administration 
with regard to the people. And, considering the imperfections of 
human nature, it is scarcely possible it should be otherwise, even though 
the best of men were in authority. For interest will have its influence 
to blind the eyes and pervert the judgment of the wisest and most 
upright. 

We have been certified in form that this is the case with the gentle- 
men in the chief seat of Government, and at the head of the Province, 
and, from the best information we are able to obtain, we have but too 
much reason to fear that the same has taken place with respect to a 
number of others in places of trust and power, of no small importance 
to the well-being of this people. Particularly we have reason to think 
this to be the fact with respect to the Judges of the Supreme Court, 
the highest court of justice in the Province, — the court upon the de- 
cisions and determinations of which all our interests respecting prop- 
erty, liberty, or life, do chiefly and ultimately depend; and what adds 
to the indignity of this measure is that it is to be carried into effect, as 
we have just reason to suppose, at our expense, at the same time that 
it is against our consent. Thus the plan of oppression is begun, and 
so far carried on that, if our enemies are still successful, and no means 
can be found to put a stop to their career, no measures contrived for 



14 

a restoration of our affairs to a constitutional course, as pointed out 
in our Charter, we have just reason to fear that the eyes of the Gov- 
ernment being blinded, the sources of justice poisoned, and hands of 
the administration bribed with interest, the system of slavery will soon 
be complete. These things are of so interesting a nature, so deeply 
affecting, and so big with the ruin of all our rights and liberties, both 
civil and religious, that we readily acknowledge that we cannot so 
much as transiently view them without a mixture of horror, indigna- 
tion, and grief. 

But this is not all. Our Charter knows no such thing as instructions 
to Government; and yet what have not instructions done to distress 
this people? And if, in addition to these, it should be found upon 
the inquiry of the guardians of the Province in General Court assem- 
bled (and they have a right to inquire) that the law has not in all in- 
stances had its course, or that at any time measures have been suc- 
cessful to stay justice from offenders, it seems as if it was time to be 
alarmed, and provide for our own safety, or else tamely to bow to the 
yoke, and forever hereafter be silent. Whether this representation 
be just is submitted, and must be left to time and facts to discover. 
But that these, among other things, are worthy our most serious at- 
tention, as subjects of inquiry and deep interest, cannot be disputed. 

And therefore to you. Sir, whom we have chosen to represent us in 
the Great and General Court of Inquest for this Province, we do most 
earnestly recommend it, that you use your utmost influence that these, 
as well as all other matters in which the rights and liberties of this 
people are concerned, are impartially inquired into and dispassionately 
considered by the General Assembly, and that measures be pursued 
by Petition to the throne or otherwise, as the Court in their great wis- 
dom shall see meet, for a radical and lasting redress. That thus, 
whether successful or not, succeeding generations might know that we 
understood our rights and liberties, and were neither afraid nor ashamed 
to assert and maintain them, and that we ourselves may have at least 
this consolation in our chains, that it was not through our neglect that 
this people were enslaved. 

William Reed, Per Order. 

At the same meeting the town took into consideration a com- 
munication from the town of Boston on the same general subject, 
and 

Voted, That this town entirely concur with them in their sentiments, 
both as to the nature of our rights and the high infraction of them by 
the late measures of Government, and with pleasure embrace this 
opportunity to express the great sense they have of the vigilance and 
patriotic spirit they and our brethren in many other towns have dis- 
covered upon this and various occasions, for the preservation of our 
rights. 



15 

Voted, also, That this town has a right to correspond with other towns 
upon matters of common concern, and that a Committee be accordingly 
chosen to transmit the proceeding of this meeting to the Gentlemen 
of the Committee of Correspondence in Boston; and, further, to cor- 
respond with them, as well as the Committee of other towns, upon mat- 
ters of common concern, as occasion may require. 

The town then proceeded and chose the following- named gen- 
tlemen as their Committee of Correspondence: Capt. Thad- 
deus Bowman, Dea. Jonas Stone, Ensign Robert Harrington, 
Dea. Benjamin Brown, and Dea. Joseph Loring. 

The opposition to the Stamp Act was such that Parliament 
was induced to repeal it, which they did in 1766. But this was 
a change rather than an abandonment of their policy. They 
repealed an act which they saw that they could not enforce, for 
the purpose of adopting other measures which they deemed more 
likely to bring the colonists to their feet. 

In December, 1773, the inhabitants were called together to 
consider the state of public affairs, and especially the subject 
of the Tea, sent over by the East India Company, when the whole 
subject was referred to the Committee of Correspondence, who 
subsequently submitted the following Report, which was unani- 
mously adopted: — 

That from intelligence transmitted by the Committee of Correspond- 
ence in the Town of Boston to the Committee of Correspondence for 
this place, and by them communicated to the town, it appears that 
the enemies of the rights and liberties of America, greatly disappointed 
in the success of the Revenue Act, are seeking to avail themselves of 
a new, and, if possible, yet more detestable measure to distress, en- 
slave, and destroy us. Not enough that a tax was laid upon teas, 
which should be imported by us, for the sole purpose of raising a rev- 
enue to support taskmasters, pensioners, &c., in idleness and lu.xury, 
but by a late Act of Parliament, to appease the wrath of the East India 
Company, whose trade to America had been greatly clogged by the 
operation of the Revenue Acts, provision is made for said Company 
to export their Teas to America free, and discharged from the payment 
of all duties and customs in England, but liable to all the same rules, 
regulations, penalties, and forfeitures in America, as are provided by 
the Revenue Act, as much as if the above-mentioned Act had never 
been passed. 

Not to say anything of the gross partiality herein discovered in favor 
of the East India Company, and to the injur)' and oppression of .\mer- 
icans, we are alarmed at the masterly effort of iniquitous policy, as 
it has the most gloomy effect upon the trade of these colonies and 
gives an opening to the East India Company, or others under the covert 

'23 



i6 

of an Act of Parliament, for the unrighteous purpose of raising and 
securing a revenue to the crown out of the purses of industrious Amer- 
icans, to monopolize' one branch after another, until in the process 
of time the whole trade will be in their hands, and by their consignees, 
factors, &c., they will be the sole merchants of America. 

And, further, we are more especially alarmed, as by these crafty 
measures the Revenue Act is to be established, and the rights and lib- 
erties of Americans forever sapped and destroyed. These appear to 
us to be sacrifices we must make, and these are the costly pledges 
that must be given into the hands of the oppressor. The moment 
we receive this detested article, the tribute will be established upon 
us. For nothing short of this will ever fill the mouth of the oppressor, 
or gorge the insatiate appetite of lust and ambition. Once admit this 
subtle, wicked ministerial plan to take place, once permit this tea, 
thus imposed up3n us by the East India Company, to be landed, re- 
ceived, and vended by their consignees, factors, &c., the badge of 
our slavery is fixed, the foundation of ruin is surely laid; and, unless 
a wise and powerful God, by some unforeseen revolution in Providence, 
shall prevent, we shall soon be obliged to bid farewell to the once flour- 
ishing trade of America, and an everlasting adieu to those glorious 
rights and liberties for which our worthy ancestors so earnestly prayed, 
so bravely fought, so freely bled! 

This being the light in which we view these measures of adminis- 
tration in their nature and tendency, we cannot but be alarmed, espe- 
cially when we see our danger so great, our ruin so nearly effected, 
the ship with the detested tribute Tea in the harbor, and the persons 
appointed to receive and sell the same unnaturally refusing to resign 
their appointment, though by carrying it into effect, they should pro- 
cure their country's ruin. As therefore we should be wanting to our- 
selves, to our country and posterity, to be silent upon such an occasion 
as this, and as we have no reason to e.xpect that God, the Supreme Dis- 
poser of all things, will work miracles for us, while we neglect ourselves, 
we do with the greatest seriousness and sincerity come into the fol- 
■ lowing 

Resolves. 

1. That as the Revenue Act, and the Act allowing the East India 
Company to export Teas into the Colonies subject to duties, with all 
the measures of the Ministry and Administration, whether by secret 
craft or open violence to carry said Acts into effect, appear to us to be 
a direct violation of our charter rights and liberties, we are determined 
to the utmost of our power in every rational way, upon this and all 
proper occasions, to oppose them, and use our most vigilant and reso- 
lute endeavors to prevent their taking place among us. 

2. That we will not be concerned either directly or indirectly in 
landing, receiving, buying, or selling, or even using any of the Teas 
sent out by the East India Company, or that shall be imported subject 
124 



17 

to a duty imposed by Act of Parliament, for the purpose of raising a 
revenue in America. 

3. That all such persons as shall directly or indirectly aid and assist 
in landing, receiving, buying, selfrng, or using the Teas sent by the East 
India Company, or imported by others subject to a duty, for the pur- 
pose of a revenue, shall be deemed and treated by us as enemies of their 
countn.'. 

4. That the conduct of Richard Clarke and son, the Governor's two 
sons, Thomas and Elisha Hutchinson, and other consignees, in refus- 
ing to resign their appointment as factors, or vendue masters for the 
East India Company, when repeatedly requested by the town of Boston, 
has justly rendered them obnoxious to their fellow-citizens, to the in- 
habitants of this town, and to the people of the Province, and Amer- 
ica in general; and, as upon this occasion they have discovered, not 
only want of due affection for tlieir native country, but also from self- 
ish views (as we think), a strange disposition to accelerate its ruin, 
we cannot but consider them as objects of our just resentment, indig- 
nation, and contempt. 

5. That, as it has been basely insinuated that the measures taken to 
prevent the reception of the East India Company's Teas are the effect 
of a scheme of the merchants to advance their own interest, it is the 
opinion of this town that the suggestion is false and malicious, and 
designed at the same time to deceive and delude the people into a com- 
pliance with measures of their enemies, and to prevent the good effect 
of the honest and patriotic endeavors of so valuable and powerful 
part of the community to rescue the trade and liberties of their country 
from impending destruction. 

6. That, as with gratitude to our brethren in Boston and other towns 
we do express our satisfaction in the measures they have taken, and the 
struggles they have made upon this, as well as many other occasions, 
for the liberties of their country and America, we are ready and re- 
solved to concur with them in every rational measure that may be 
necessary for the preservation or recovery of our rights and liberties 
as Englishmen and Christians; and we trust in God that, should the 
state of our affairs require it, we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates 
and everything dear in life, yea, and lije itself, in support of the 
common cause. 

The above Resolves being passed, a motion was made that to 
them another should be added. Accordingly, it was resolved 
without a dissenting voice, — 

That if any head of a family in this town, or any person, shall from 
this time forward, and until the duty be taken off, purchase any Tea, 
or sell or consume any Tea in their families, such person shall be looked 
upon as an enemy to this town, and to this country, and shall by this 
town be treated with neglect and contempt. 

125 



1 8 

At a meeting of the inhabitants of Lexington, duly warned, on 
the 26th of September, 1774, Dea. Stone was chosen to rep- 
resent the town in the General Court. A committee, consist- 
ing of Capt. Bowman, Dea. Brown, and Lieut. Edmund Munroe, 
Was chosen to prepare Instructions, who reported the following 
draft, which was adopted: — 

The alarming situation of our public affairs being so distressing as 
at present, and our Council being chosen by a mandamus from the 
King, whose authority as a Council we cannot own, nor consent to, — 

We, therefore, the inhabitants of the town of Lexington, being as- 
sembled at the Meeting-house in said town, on Monday, the twenty- 
sixth day of September instant, to make choice of a Representative, 
and having made choice of Dea. Stone as our Representative, we, 
putting the fullest confidence in your integrity and ability, do instruct 
you. Sir, in the following manner, to use your utmost influence at the 
Great and General Court, that nothing there be transacted as a Court, 
under the new Council, or in conformity with any of the late Acts of 
Parliament. 

At the same meeting they chose Dea Stone a delegate to 
the Provincial Congress. Having repeatedly denounced the acts 
of the Ministry and Parliament, as acts of oppression, designed 
to rob the people of the Colonies of every right which they held 
dear, and having pledged their fortunes and their lives, should 
the occasion require, in defence of the great principles of Uberty, 
like men who knew what they said, and said what they meant, 
the inhabitants of the town made preparation for the last resort 
of oppressed subjects. Consequently, at meetings held in No- 
vember and December, the}' voted "to pro\ide a suitable quan- 
tity of flints," "to bring two pieces of cannon from Watertown 
and mount them," "to provide a pair of drums for the use of 
the miHtary company in town," "to provide bayonets at the 
town's cost for one-third of the training soldiers," to "have the 
miUtia and alarm hst meet for a view of their arms," &c.; and, 
that these votes should not prove a mere dead letter, committees 
were chosen to carry them into effect. 

Besides, as the Provincial Congress had recommended to the 
people to put themselves in a state of defence by organizing mili- 
tary companies, to be armed and equipped, and to be ready to 
march at the shortest notice, it was voted by the inhabitants of 
Lexington that they would carry out these recommendations; 
and committees were appointed for that purpose. As the Con- 
gress had also chosen Henry Gardner, Esq., of Stow, to be Re- 
136 



19 

ceiver General of all province taxes which should be collected, 
and requested the several towns to pay their respective portions 
of the taxes, when collected, over to him, instead of paying them 
over to Harrison Gray, Esq., His Majesty's Receiver General, 
the people directed their collectors to pay the pro\-ince tax, when 
collected, over to Henry Gardner, Esq., and assured them by 
solemn vote that the town would see them harmless for so doing. 
These "awful notes of preparation" showed that the people were 
prepared for any emergency, and firmly resolved to maintain 
their rights by the sword, if remonstrance and entreaty should 
prove ineffectual. We do not claim for the town of Lexington 
any exclusive honor in this respect. But we do say that no town, 
under all the circumstances, is deserving of more praise. . . . 

I have been thus particular in presenting the acts and doings 
of the inhabitants of Lexington preparatory to the opening of 
hostilities; for, after all, we are to contemplate the American 
Revolution not so much in the strife upon the ensanguined field as 
in the cool deliberation and the firm resolve which characterized 
our people at the period immediately preceding the open rupture. 
I have been thus particular in order to present to the public 
those valuable state papers, written by the Rev. Jonas Clarke, 
which prepared our people, not only for the contest, but for the 
just appreciations of rational and constitutional hberty. It is 
an easy thing in times of excitement to arouse the passions of men, 
and nerve their arms for battle, — "to teach their hands to war 
and their fingers to fight." But to instil into their minds the great 
principles of civil and religious liljerty, and make them realize 
their duty as citizens, is a more difficult task. But this has been 
done in a clear and able manner in the documents above cited. 
So fully and so clearly are the grievances under which our fathers 
labored and the causes which gave rise to the American Revo- 
lution set forth that, if all other records were destroyed, and all 
recollections blotted from the memory, the faithful historian 
could, from the Instructions given to the Representatives of 
Le.xington, and the other papers found in our Records, emanating 
from the pen of Mr. Clarke, trace the developments of oppres- 
sion from year to year, and state the true causes of that mighty 
struggle. . . . 

Those, therefore, who contemplate the Revolution as com- 
mencing on the 19th of April, 1775, must look at effects rather 
than at causes, and suffer their minds to rest upon the outward 
and visible rather than penetrate the great moral causes operat- 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 077 484 4 



ing by fixed and certain laws, which had been developing them- 
selves for more than a century. The rash act of Pitcairn at 
Lexington Common was by no means the cause of the Revolu- 
tion. It was merely the accidental occurrence which opened the 
drama at that time and place. The tragedy had been written, 
the great parts assigned, and the grand result penned by the 
recording angel; and, if the first act had not been opened at 
Lexington and Concord, it must have transpired on some other 
field. Otis and Adams opened the battle of the Revolution 
long before the bayonet was fixed or the sword drawn. Clarke's 
Instructions to our Representatives did as much to make the pa- 
triots stand firm on the Common in the very face of a superior 
force as did the stern command of the gallant Parker. 



The town meeting is the most characteristic and most potent political institution evolved 
and contributed to the world by New England. "Those wards called townships in New 
England," said Jefferson, "ar« the vital principle of their governments, and have proved 
themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self- 
government, and for its preservation." " Nations which are accustomed to township institu- 
tions and municipal government," said De Tocqueville, " are better able than any other to 
found prosperous colonies. The habit of thinking and governing for one's self is indispensa- 
ble in a new country." Lecky expresses the opinion that it was to the vigor of the town gov- 
ernments and local institutions more than to anything else that was due the supremacy of 
England in America, the successful colonization out of which grew at last the United States, 
and that France failed precisely for want of this. Parkman repeatedly emphasizes this con- 
trast in his volumes. Mill, Freeman, Emerson, Richard Henry Lee, and many others have 
treated this subject. See their testimony referred to in the last chapter of Hosmer's Life of 
Samuel Adams. Samuel Adams, "the last of the Puritans," "the father of the American 
Revolution," is also well called pre-eminently "the man of the town meeting." Bancroft 
speaks of him as "the truest representative of the home rule of Massachusetts in its town 
meetings and General Court." 

Never did the town meeting show itself so powerful or impressive as in New England 
during the dozen years preceding the outbreak of the Revolution. The Boston town meet- 
in;;, under the lead of Samuel Adams and his great a.ssociates, showed itself, in the dignity and 
strength of its public declarations, its speeches and its acts, more than a match for the British 
Parhament; and the seriousness and nobility of the meetings in a .score of the larger towns 
which supfwrted Boston are unparalleled in simple local annals. The resolutions and in- 
structions framed in many of them would do honor to the world's historic parliaments. The 
Lexington records given in the present leaflet are matched by the records of many of our 
historic towns. See references in Barry's History of Massachu.setts, ii. 453-458. See the 
accounts of the proceedings in New England during the decade preceding the Revolution 
in Bancroft, Fiske, Palfrey, Trevelyan, and other histories of the period. See chapter on 
the Town Meeting in Fiske 's "American Pohtical Ideas," the chapters on Local Government 
in Bryce's "American Commonwealth," the paper on the Colonial Town Meeting in Hart's 
"Practical Essays in American Government," sections in Woodrow Wilson's "The State," 
and references in Charming and Hart's "Guide to American History," pp. 271, 313, etc. 



PUBLISHED BY 

THE DIRECTORS OFTHE OLD SOUTH WORK, 

Old South Meeting-house, Boston, Mass. 
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